Do you work here?

Organized chaos.

Gratefulness

Sometimes I think about how the most ordinary details of my daily life were the greatest dream of my ancestors.

Key to Life

"The key to building a sustainable business, in fact the key to life, is maintaining a consistency between your work and core values. The goal is not to build the best company as measured by others but to do the work that best fits you."

-Warren Buffet

When your trust in your own judgement is complete, you are completely relaxed in the midst of chaos.

Those in a relaxed state will never panic out of positions or chase bubbles. They don’t cave to peer pressure because they don’t have peers. They are better at what they do because they waste no energy on the petty tensions that consume everyone else.

Yelling is so old school

Maniacal micro-managers who scream because it empowers them are not effective communicators and are never going to grow.

There’s really not as much need for yelling since the advent of computer technology, we no longer have to shout orders; there are printers in the office that spew them out. That cuts down on a lot of the noise.

There’s no workplace where you should be allowed to berate your employees. Berating will not motivate them. But you have to find ways to ignite their passion—by teaching rather than screaming. 

I have a kinder, gentler management style than most. I’m comfortable in my skin.

I believe that being fair and respectful is the best strategy for motivating people. Managers have to assume more of a coaching and counseling role.

 There used to be a huge gap in education and knowledge between managers and new hires. Not today. Many new hires are more educated and have better computer skills than the people doing the hiring. These people are not going to take abusive treatment. The first time you scream and yell, they may listen. But keep doing it, and they just tune you out.

Try to involve employees in the development of team goals and work methods. When everyone has a hand in establishing a goal, they work harder to achieve it than any manager could ever force them to work by yelling.

Practice benevolence without despotism. Try to listen more carefully and be sensitive to personal as well as economic needs. There’s that word again: sensitive.

The bottom line is simple: Don’t scream and yell because it does not work, and your employees will leave.

Note to IT: I’ve been told by several people at work that yelling is the way to solve problems. My computer is running slow... Please feel free to stop by and yell at my computer.

Learning vs Knowing Quote

"The shadow side of knowledge is that knowing prevents us from learning. The state of learning is the state of openness to all possibilities, whereas the state of knowing is a state of closedness to further possibilities."
Teal Swan

New Google Maps are awesome:

STEP 1
Open Google Maps and enable new maps (if you haven't yet). Zoom out till you can.

STEP2
Click on satellite view on the bottom left corner box. You will see Earth like this: You can see real time Earth shadow, the shadowed part of Earth is actually dark at the particular moment you are seeing. The lights as indicated by smaller arrow are the actual glow of city street light (not real time though).

STEP 3
Zoom in by two mouse scrolls: Those cloud cover are actual! And in real time! Isn't it incredible?

Creating Interactive Flash Buttons

This tutorial was created by "flashthingy";
see other great Flash tutorials here.

Sita Sings the Blues

Gingerbread made with Carrot Juice

Gingerbread made with Carrot Juice

• 2/3 cup whole milk 
• 1/3 cup organic blackstrap molasses 
• 1/3 cup organic maple syrup
• 1/2 cup fresh organic carrot juice
• 1 tbsp Braggs apple cider vinegar
• 4 tbsp melted organic coconut oil
• 2 tblsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup ground flax meal 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tblsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp powdered ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup dark brown organic sugar
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or Bob’s gluten-free mix or spelt flour)

Gingerbread Recipe: Preheat oven to 400 F and grease an 8×8 pan. In a large measuring bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients except for the flour. Let sit at least 5 minutes. Add flour and stir until just evenly combined. Do not over mix. Pour into the pan and bake 25 minutes at 350 F, then remove from the oven and let sit another 20 minutes to cool and achieve the correct texture. 

Buddhist concept of the universe

"Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image." 

Are you dysfunctional?

Let's talk about functions. In math, the following describes functions:

A function relates an input to an output. Example of a function:

Cost of whole turkey and its weight. This is a function because (normally) the more the turkey weighs, the more it costs to buy it. If turkey costs $3.00 per pound and I bought 15 pound turkey, then I would use the following formula:

Input or “domain”: Weight of the turkey (x).

Output or “range”: Total cost of turkey (y)

There is exactly one input for each output in a function. The number of pounds bought (x) is an independent variable. The total cost (y) is the dependent variable because it is dependent on the number of pounds bought.

Price of turkey ($3.00/lb) multiplied by the weight of turkey (x) = total cost of turkey (y)

or  3 * x = y

Ordered pairs: (0,0), (1,3), (2,6), (3,9), (4,12), (5,15)

This turkey/price/lb example is a function because there is exactly one domain value for each range.

HOWEVER,

Art, design and creativity are not functions because there is no one relationship between time and quantity (and quality). There is no right or wrong answer. There is however quality. 

A function is a "well-behaved" relationship. For example, a functional family vs dysfunctional family or functional work environment vs dysfunctional one. An individual can be very functional in an environment where the tasks are always predictable relationally, but that same individual is dysfunctional in an environment that requires creativity. This often happens in the public sector workplace with employees who have been hired at a time when tasks were measured by quantity (filing, archiving, and other tasks that can be automated). That individual may seek other ways to get attention and become disruptive. Whereas, a creative person is dysfunctional in a work situation that is not creative because they are bored and yearn for opportunities to explore ideas. Today's workplace demands creativity. 

I found a GREAT blog about potatoes...

I also discovered that my maternal grandmother's cuisine was actually Belarusian cuisine. This is one of the most diverse in the continent. It is similar to the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, but is unique in its own way, is hearty and delicious.

Belarusian Draniki

10-12 potatoes;
2-3 eggs;
3-4 tbl spoon of flour;
1 onion;
2-3 tablespoon sour cream;
oil;
salt to your taste.

Grate potatoes and onion together, drain out excess potato juice. Whip eggs and mix everything with flour and sour cream. Put some oil on a pan and let it get hot. Put a small portion of the draniki puree on the pan and let it get golden fried from one side. Turn it over and fry it from the other side. Serve with sour cream.